This course will explore a wide variety of wetland and upland habitats, including their soils, geology, hydrology, and human impacts, as a field laboratory to understand wetland hydrology. The class will make a detailed examination of the Cedarburg Bog in order to understand surface water, groundwater and storage potential within the Bog’s watershed formation, estimate a water mass balance for the Bog, and build a basic field-based hydrologic model for the Bog. A wide variety of field investigation techniques will be taught as part of this class project, and historical groundwater and climate information will be used. We will discuss the implications of water chemistry on development of wetland communities, and the potential threats from, and remediation of, human activities. This fun and engaging course will provide a basic introduction to hydrology, water chemistry, and the influence of soil and geology. This class is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as environmental and engineering professionals wanting to better understand field assessment of wetlands.

Instructor: Dr. Roger Kuhns is president of SustainAudit, LLC, and a part-time researcher at the Cedarburg Bog. He has conducted natural resources assessments, site remediation and restoration programs, and sustainable land use planning projects globally. He has worked on the structural geology, hydrology and natural history of eastern Wisconsin for more than a decade.